The Boy-Who-Walked-Away
by slytherinsal
Summary: Set at the beginning of the Triwizard tournament, when Harry is so angry, he has decided that the consequence of losing his magic matters less than losing his life. However, he has a thing or two to say about the Wizarding World first. Oh, and it's a Harry/Hermione shipping


**The Boy Who Walked Away**

After his name had come out of the Goblet, Harry Potter made certain arrangements, and when the owls delivered a bunch of printed leaflets he started distributing them to the visiting schools.

They read:

 **Hogwarts Unwritten Rules**

1/ It's fine to call people offensive names like Mudblood, Scarhead or Blood Traitor so long as your daddy is rich and the Headmaster thinks you can be redeemed for The Greater Good

2/ It's not fine for a victim to retaliate to bullying if the Headmaster thinks they are already suborned to the Greater Good and are enough of a doormat for him to cow, and should be properly grateful for being permitted to come to school.

3/ It's fine to be a deatheater when the Headmaster has every reason to trust you and to torture children For The Greater Good. Fairness is not required.

4/ It's fine to send abused children back to their abusers For The Greater Good even when they have other options

5/ It's fine to permit the whole school to bully one kid whether she has slightly odd ideas or whether he has a rare language skill or whether some joker puts his name in for a competition he has no intention of participating in. It is For The Greater Good to kick someone when they are down so they are too scared to rebel and to turn to the Dark just to be free of the Headmaster.

Albus Dumbledore read over the shoulder of Madame Maxime.

He was shocked. Was Harry turning dark?

"Someone is seeck of being put upon, Dumblydore, are zese accusations true?" asked Madame Maxime.

"It is exaggerated and taken out of context," said Albus. "Harry, my boy, you are overwrought and do not mean this."

Harry stood up.

"I mean every word, Headmaster, and I hope you will enjoy answering to the parents and governors. I've sent a copy to the Prophet and to the Quibbler, as well as to every governor and the head of the DMLE, and I've asked them why they didn't respond to dealing with the petrifications before I had to fight a ruddy basilisk as well. And the editor of the Quibbler will be particularly interested in point 5 as it's his daughter that Professor Flitwick is not protecting from serious systematic bullying. And also, I'm not prepared to take place in this stupid competition of yours, so don't expect me to do so."

"Harry, my dear boy! You know that you have to take part or you will lose your magic."

"Headmaster, if I were your 'dear' anything, you would not send me back every summer to be beaten and worked like a house elf, even when other alternatives are available, so please do not pretend any affection for me," said Harry. "And actually, the Wizarding World has not given me so much that I like, actually care that much if I lose my magic. It's like meh. Magic has given me a scar from a basilisk tooth because I was too miserable that year to care if I lived or died, it's given me a lot of knowledge of how to scrub cauldrons the muggle way, but oh wait! I already learned that at my aunt's house anyway. You have nothing to offer me that makes magic attractive."

"That brat is ..."

"HUSH Severus," the headmaster's tone was so awful that Snape shut up. Dumbledore was horrified. He wanted a tool cowed enough to die at the right time, but not one cowed so much that he didn't even care if he lost his magic. "Harry, you are a wizard, magic defines who you are."

"No, headmaster, that's where you, like so many others, fail to understand me," said Harry. "You see the Boy-Who-Lived, a wizard. But I'm not that. I'm Harry, a boy, and I'd be Harry, a boy, if I was a wizard or a muggle. Personality is not dependent on magic. At the moment I have a talent. When I lose it, it will be as if a kid who was a musical prodigy went deaf. Not that going deaf stopped Beethoven, but he was special. I don't care enough about this talent to be prepared to risk my life to save it. I'd rather grow up, get married, have kids, and live a quiet life in some suburban backwater."

This was not what Albus had planned at all.

"Well, my boy, you have time to rethink this stance."

"I've thought and rethought it, and I am going to leave the castle so I can be somewhere I want to be when my magic goes."

"Harry, I can lock the gate against you. You will not leave the castle."

"Dobby!"

There was a double POP!, one as Dobby appeared, and another as he took Harry directly to a pre-arranged position. They would be going on to Hermione's parents' house, Harry having been in communication with them, begging them to help him.

In the great hall there was silence.

Hermione had her head in her hands, to all appearances sobbing. She was crying, for Harry's plight, but she was also laughing at his melodramatic exit. Harry and she had cooked this up between them when he had convinced her that he was ready to lose his magic if need be.

She was also privy to the fact that he believed it would target either his magical guardian, Dumbledore, or whoever put his name in.

The school erupted.

"He _said_ he hadn't put his name in, and none of you oafs believed him!" Hermione shouted, raising her tear-streaked face.

"Arrogant brat, who does he think he is?" demanded Snape.

"I'd say, Severus, he thinks he is a boy who has been failed one too many times, and I am as guilty of failing him as Albus is," said Minerva, who was also crying.

OoOoO

"Harry, come in," Dan Granger opened the door. "You look shattered."

"I am, sir," said Harry. "I've been to Gringotts, and they've been very accommodating, I have a muggle credit card to Grindlay's Bank, their muggle world outlet, which is honoured at most outlets. Griphook doesn't think I should lose my magic, but as I'm the last of an ancient line, I will have access to my vaults providing I do not touch more than the trust fund until I sire magical children. I ... er, I want to marry Hermione."

"Well, you're both very young to consider that, but then, considering your own parents, it seems the magical world does things very young. You have to consider, though, if you do lose your magic, whether you will feel jealous of her."

"Sir, I have always admired Hermione, and that's never going to change," said Harry. "And at least I will understand the theory to be a sounding-board for her, and I plan to learn arithmancy and runes, which I should have opted for in the first place, to help her out. I won't need magic to study theoretical subjects."

"I think you're a brave young man to do this for a principle, and Hermione is a lucky girl if you stay together; and a lucky girl to have you as a friend. And I don't care if you are rich or not; we're well off and we can afford to take care of you and put you through any muggle school you want."

"Thank you sir. I'll be happy at the local secondary modern; now Hermione has taught me to study, I can get by even with bad teachers. After all, I have been managing with some dire teachers to date."

"I hope both of you will be going to Beauxbatons together," said Dan. "Dinner's ready."

"Thanks, sir. I had to promise Dobby to ask you to let him cook and clean if he's to be my elf."

"I'm not sure about that, Hermione waxed lyrical about slavery."

"The problem is, elves like to cook and clean and waste away without work," said Harry, shrugging. "I do have a good bit to keep him occupied though, and out of Mrs. Granger's way, because Griphook told me that I have slayer's rights to the basilisk that petrified Hermione, and that it's worth a good bit. Dobby agreed to help harvest it, being able to pop Goblin experts in there. Even if I leave school, it's still my basilisk and I want to give some of the profits to those who suffered."

"You're a generous lad," said Dan. "Now, Hermione told me to check with you about tracking charms?"

"Hermione sent you a check-list, I bet," chuckled Harry. "Dobby dealt with all the tracking charms on me and on all my possessions, and he popped my trunk in your spare bedroom if that's ok?"

"That's fine, son," said Dan. "Bit of a security risk, these elves if they can just pop places."

"Yes, and that's the beauty of them; wizards ignore elves and how powerful they are, and that means those of us with fresh eyes have an advantage. Dumbledore can flash anywhere with his phoenix, even against anti-apparation zones, but Dobby can pop me anywhere so long as there are no anti-elf-apparation zones, and I'm not even sure if anyone knows how to create them."

"Which is handy. Right, if you and your kit are free of tracking devices, the only way the headmaster is going to know where you are is by asking your friends."

Harry's face hardened.

"Ron chose not to be my friend when he refused to believe that I had not put my name in the Goblet of Fire. I said I already had too much fame and quite enough money, and he said it was all right for some to flaunt their fame and wealth. I didn't did I?"

"No, son, it might not be the most tactful way to have put it, but I know from what Hermione has told me, you'd exchange all the wealth and fame to have your parents back."

Harry nodded, and sat to eat, basking in the welcoming smile of Emma Granger, who was sensitive enough not to force hugs on people who were not ready for them. Harry was Hermione's first friend, and as neither of the Grangers much liked what they had heard of Ron, they were happy to accept Harry as a son, their daughter's only real friend, whether as Hermione's adoptive brother, or as a son-in-law one day.

They had already started proceedings against the Dursleys; Hermione had persuaded Harry to let her photograph his back where Vernon had scarred him with his belt, and they were speaking with a solicitor about the process of adoption. Being wealthy professionals, they knew they could skirt a lot of red tape normally involved in the process.

And if they could not have Harry officially, they were prepared to move to France and adopt him through the French Ministry of Magic. The French muggle health service was becoming superior to the NHS, and would be glad of a pair of very good dentists.

Dan did not even bother to ask if Hermione could be suckered into telling where Harry was. He knew his daughter too well.

OoOoO

"And you have no idea where Harry might have gone? It seems extraordinary to me that he would not tell his best friends," Dumbledore gave Hermione and Ron a grandfatherly twinkle.

Hermione glared at Ron, lifting her face from the handkerchief she was sobbing into so as not to meet the headmaster's penetrating gaze.

"Ron got in a stupid jealous rage about the whole Triwizard thing, he still thinks Harry somehow overcame the age line, and he was very nasty to Harry. Why on earth would Harry trust someone he feels has betrayed him as badly as you have, headmaster, by not getting him out of it? And because I was stupid enough to try to mediate, he sees me as tarred with the same brush as Ron, and he's been getting quieter and quieter and more and more depressed, and if he kills himself, his blood will be on your head, headmaster."

"Miss Granger!" Minerva was shocked.

"Miss Granger is entitled to her opinion," said Albus. "Do you really believe I have failed Harry, my dear?"

"Yes, headmaster, I do. I used to admire you, and I believed that however weird it might seem for there to be a Cerberus in a school full of children, or a possessed teacher to be permitted, or to have something like the Philosopher's stone hidden here, that you knew what you were doing. When I figured out that the monster was a basilisk and where it was coming from, that belief began to be eroded, because if you are as clever as they say you are, why did a twelve-year-old work something out when you've had experience of it before? And then you let Fudge walk all over you last year, and didn't even consider showing our memories in your pensieve to the DMLE, and now this. I'm sure there are provisions for voiding the contest, and I notice that all the books on magical contracts vanished from the library. I don't know if you did that yourself, or if someone else did it, but it's your responsibility that Harry was entered illegally."

"Eh, wot, do you really think he didn't do it?" asked Ron.

"You idiot!" said Hermione, furiously. "After him declaring he'd have nothing to do with it, risking losing his magic, do you still believe he put his name in?"

Ron considered.

"He'll be back on November 24th," he said. "Just wanted a bit more publicity."

"You ARSE!" screeched Hermione.

"Miss Granger!" Minerva was most disapproving.

"I do not believe for one moment that Mr. Potter put in his own name," said Albus, twinkling at Ron, "But I think you are correct. He will rethink the dangers of losing his magic, and also his duty to his school and to his friends. He will return."

"What school?" asked Hermione. "The goblet essentially expelled him from Hogwarts and declared him to be in another, unnamed school. His contract with Hogwarts is broken, because if he's legally bound to compete, not only is he legally no longer your pupil, he's also legally adult, because otherwise the rules are being broken in permitting someone under 17 to compete. If I was Harry, I'd declare emancipation, clear all my vaults and move to South America."

Dumbledore paled.

"My dear! Surely not! Has he said anything to you about this?"

"He asked me to find out which countries do not have an extradition treaty with Magical Britain, and he was looking at maps of Hong Kong and South Africa, where English is spoken," said Hermione.

Harry had done just that, so she could speak about it with perfect truth.

Dumbledore was shattered.

"Headmaster, if Harry does not return, I wish to transfer to Beauxbatons," said Hermione. "Being somewhere as unsafe as Hogwarts will be too traumatic without Harry."

"Surely you cannot wish to leave your friends!" Albus smiled at her.

"My friend has left," said Hermione. "Ron is no friend of mine; he uses me to get his homework done. Ginny uses me to talk about that mythical creature, The Boy Who Lived. Luna is thinking of transferring as well, because of all that bullying. Why on earth would I want to stay in a place where I have been attacked by a troll, petrified by a basilisk, nearly kissed by a dementor, and where I am daily called filthy names by Malfoy and his cronies, who are never punished for their verbal bullying, and I am not even allowed to retaliate? My parents have been threatening to pull me out of school for years, especially as none of you have ever been honest with them about the dangers I've been in. I begged them to let me stay because of Harry. You've driven away the only reason for me staying, and if you will excuse me, I want to go and talk to Madame Maxime about it. I don't know where Harry is, or even if he is alive or dead. And if he wasn't a pawn in some Greater Good Game you play I don't think you'd care either. Good day." And she marched out, leaving Ron gaping, and still not sure what was going on.

"She's mental," he said, finding the only explanation that suited his limited understanding. "Always has been."

"And Miss Granger could do without verbal bullying from you as well, Mr. Weasley, ten points from Gryffindor and a detention with me in which you will discover and write out fifty times the definition of the word 'mental'," said Minerva, tartly.

Ron stumbled out of the office, still not sure what he had done wrong, and Minerva turned to Albus.

"I hae nae doot that yon wee lassie has a' the truth o'it a'," she said, her brogue increasing with emotion. "And whitever game ye're playin' it's too much, ye silly owd coot. Ye've been sae sharp, ye've cut yeresel' and moreover, ye've reduced the smartest witch o' her age tae greetin' an' aboot tae leave yer school because ye cannae concentrate on running a school wi'oot playin' fast and loose wi' the safety o' the pupils, and I will tell the truth when I am questioned, for I'm no' puttin' up wi' yer havers ony more, the noo."

OoOoO

Griphook had filed for emancipation on Harry's behalf – for a fee – not so much in anticipation that it would be honoured, but in order to jerk Dumbledore's strings.

It had jerked Dumbeldore's strings, especially as the paperwork, unexpectedly, went through. Dumbledore had Hermione in his office again.

"Harry is emancipated but he has not applied for an international port-key, so he is unlikely to be abroad," he said. "He is just making a protest, and we can talk about his emancipation later."

"An international what?" asked Hermione. "I've never heard of one of those, and I don't suppose Harry has. To go abroad, you go on an aeroplane."

Albus sagged. He had outsmarted himself in having Harry raised as a muggle. And the governors had called a meeting for right after the first task, and Amelia Bones had been in to take statements. Things were not going well.

oOoOoOoOoOo

The day of the first task dawned. Dan and Emma had stayed home from work to be with Harry, who was trying to study, but finding it hard.

"Put the books away," said Dan. "We're going to watch the Star Wars trilogy to keep your mind off it."

"What if I die? I'll be an embarrassment to you," Harry panicked.

"If you die, which I doubt, because you are stronger than a wizard who can't cope with the muggle world, then I'll see you are an embarrassment to Dumbledore, and I'll see him in prison," said Dan. "Have you seen Star Wars?"

Harry shook his head.

"Dudley watched it on TV, after seeing it the cinema, but I wasn't allowed to watch," he said.

"You are in for a treat," said Dan, rubbing his hands.

"I'll make some popcorn," said Emma. "I know the film by heart by now anyway."

Harry found that being with family wiled the time away quite nicely.

"I should think the first task should be over by now," he said, at tea time.

"Yes, and I should have thought if you were going to lose your magic you would feel something," said Emma. "But we can go to Gringotts tomorrow and ask them to test you, if you like, unless we hear from Hermione."

oOoOoo

Dumbledore was becoming desperate. Surely Harry would arrive soon? The other three were ready, and there were four dragons so he would be able to face one when he turned up. Maybe he was having trouble getting to the castle.

"Dobby!" the headmaster called the odd little elf Harry had freed and bound to the castle.

Dobby turned up.

"What does Headmaster Whiskers want?" he asked.

"Dobby, I'm concerned that Harry might not be able to get home to the castle, I want you to go and find him and bring him here," said Dumbledore.

"Dobby is a good elf, sir, and does not betray his wizard," said Dobby, and then blew a raspberry before popping away.

Dumbledore was astounded. How could Dobby be bound to Harry when he was bound to Hogwarts?

Dumbledore had never checked if Dobby considered himself bound to Hogwarts, or whether it merely pleased the elf to work there whilst considering himself bound to Harry Potter.

"We cannot delay any longer, Dumbledore," said Ludo Bagman. "Harry Potter has not turned up, so he may be assumed to have voided the contract and must take the consequences."

There was a scream from the stands set aside for the teachers. Alastor Moody appeared to be changing into ... into Barty Crouch junior, and he was screaming and clutching his head. Dumbledore too was screaming and clutching his head, thrashing about on the floor.

"Looks as though Magic knows who was responsible," said Hermione. "Well, it's going to be a bit academic whether the headmaster is sacked or not."

Aurors were all over Barty Junior, who was very loquacious in his agony and his vituperation towards Voldemort who had said there would be no risk. A team was dispatched to Little Hangleton.

Dumbledore died of a heart attack before the revolting homunculous that was Voldemort was arrested and incarcerated, along with the supposedly dead Peter Pettigrew. This opened a load more cans of worms. The snake was killed.

The competition was cancelled, and the students went home early, though Hermione had time to send an owl to tell Harry what had happened.

They hugged so tight when she got home that Dan made jokes about needing a crowbar to separate them.

oOoOoOoOo

Hermione and Harry transferred to Beauxbatons. The homunculus form faded away and died without its snake venom to feed it. Minerva found Albus' notes on horcruxes, and cursed loudly and long in broad Scots. Unlike Albus, she shared this with the DMLE, who asked the goblins to deal with any such threats in their vaults, and employed the recently freed Sirius Black to help search for any others.

Voldemort tried to possess Harry when his homunculus form died, and Harry fought back, throwing out the spirit and bursting open his scar with its evil residue, which having drained, healed properly at long last.

Sirius became a friend of the Grangers when Harry finally decided to trust him with knowledge of where he was, and Headmistress Minerva McGonagall enacted a lot of reforms on Hogwarts. She still regretted losing two of her favourite ever pupils, however.

When Harry and Hermione left school, they got married, and then went to muggle university together, where they managed quite adequately for 3 years without magic, unless you counted Dobby helping.

They raised several beautiful magical children, who, since there had been reforms, were permitted to go to Hogwarts.

 **Finis**


End file.
